With only 5,000 new iPhone customers signed up at launch, Apple's official debut in China has been viewed as a disappointment. But one Wall Street analyst still believes the handset will still sell 36 million globally in 2010.

Apple's fourth quarter of 2009 was the company's most profitable ever, riding high on record Mac and iPhone sales. The company on Monday conducted a financial conference call with analysts and the press. Notes of interest for Apple's results and the now concluded call follow.

Analysts are again bullish on Apple stock after the company reported a record third quarter in Tuesday's earnings report, and provided higher-than-expected guidance in some aspects of its fourth quarter.

Once again, Apple has had the best non-holiday quarter in its history, selling more Macs and iPhones than it ever has in spring, albeit with fewer iPods sold. The company has conducted a financial conference call with analysts and the press. Notes of interest for Apple's results and the now concluded call follow.

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer ridiculed Google's browser-based PC operating system which is slated for shipment next year, using a tone remarkably similar to that used to blow off the potential of the iPhone two years ago.

Residents of major US cities that have had near-unusable 3G since the iPhone 3G's launch should finally get relief in the months ahead, AT&T says. Meanwhile, Palm is getting its own relief via breakthrough sales of its Pre smartphone, but Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is getting no break frp, Warren Buffett, who says the executive violated good business principles by keeping his liver transplant a secret.

Psystar's hopes of stalling Apple's lawsuit have crumbled as the Mac maker has successfully overturned the court stay on its case. At the same time, Apple's legal hammer has been falling on iTunes gift card fraud, and the Palm Pre continues to sell out even with the iPhone 3GS threatening to pull customers away.

Although some of its retail stores on the east coast have already run dry of their initial allotment of iPhone 3G Ss, Apple's exclusive U.S. wireless provider AT&T tells AppleInsider that it sold "hundreds of thousands" of the new touch-screen handset during its online pre-order process.

Research in Motion put pressure on Apple Thursday with word that about 7.8 million BlackBerries had shipped during its latest fiscal quarter, again setting a new record -- and dismissing the likelihood of new and cheaper iPhones as immediate threats.

Apple has asked that package delivery service UPS hold back stateside shipments of its new iPhone 3G S handset that may have otherwise arrived early, just as the company prepares for an early afternoon launch of iPhone Software 3.0.

Arguing that the market is underestimating demand for iPhones over the next two calendar years, investment bank Morgan Stanley on Tuesday upgraded shares of Apple to Overweight from Equal-weight, saying success of the touchscreen handset should offset any growth risks in the company's core Mac and iPod businesses.

Apple saw its share of global smartphone market more than double on a year-over-year basis during the first quarter of the year but still has much work to do before catching BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and market leader Nokia.

Sales of Apple's iPod touch, once discounted as a pricey niche product, have more than doubled over the past 12 months to rates nearly in line with the iPhone, fueled by an explosion of attractive gaming titles on the App Store that are boosting overall multi-touch device shipments into Nintendo DS territory.

Apple on Wednesday announced a mixed second quarter, providing its best-ever earnings and iPhone sales for a March quarter but relatively weak Mac numbers. It just concluded a financial conference call with analysts and members of the media. Several notes of interest from the call follow:

AT&T said Wednesday that although first quarter profits slipped 9 percent, its wireless data revenues grew nearly 40 percent as it was able to achieve its third consecutive quarter of double-digit postpaid net subscriber additions on the back of 1.6 million new iPhone 3G activations.